Vogue China’s ‘Cinema Issue’

Vogue China has featured its share of Hollywood starlets and Western supermodels on its cover, including Nicole Kidman, Kate Winslet and Natalia Vodianova. But with its inaugural “Cinema Issue,” the magazine chose to embrace its homegrown talent.

The cover of the January 2011 issue features Li Bingbing styled to look like Lauren Bacall. The 402-page glossy will have sold nearly 600,000 copies — average for the magazine — by month’s end, says Angelica Cheung, the magazine’s editorial director. January traditionally is a tough month for fashion magazines, because it falls between the launch of new collections.

The decision to feature Chinese movie stars — on the cover and on 96 pages inside — was influenced by the rising revenue at Chinese theaters. Movie-ticket sales climbed 64% last year from the year before.